New Harbour

The seismic and drilling teams arrived at Scott Base on the 11^th of October and after a period of preparing the drilling and seismic systems at Scott Base left by tractor train to New Harbour on the 17^th of October. Following a series of shot tests to establish charge size and depth below sea-ice, drilling operations were carried out in New Harbour from the 20^th until completion on the 24^th of October. 120 shots were drilled and loaded. All were successfully detonated. Drilling teams surveyed and flagged the grid lines for gravity and magnetic surveys. Shot and peg surveys and ice movement surveys were undertaken using UNAVCO provided differential GPS equipment. Ice survey sites were subsequently reoccupied by the gravity/magnetic team and surveyed with NERC differential GPS equipment. Seismic operations ran between the 20^th and 30^th of October. Progress was initially slow as operations systems were streamlined, but primarily because the shot firing electronics did not perform well in the cold temperatures (<−20°C). The return trip to Scott Base of the seismic team, on the 30^th of October was incredibly slow (took 22 hours) as inadequate plant was used to tow the train (D3 bulldozer). The gravity and magnetics team arrive at Scott base on 26^th of October and after a period of preparation and base station measurements deployed for New Harbour on 31^st of October. A GPS and Gravity base station was established at the DVDP-11 drillsite in the mouth of Taylor Valley. A 20km by 20km grid (Fig. 2) was surveyed around the predefined seismic lines. Surveying was undertaken during the afternoon to early morning hours local time as base station measurements at Scott Base had indicated that these were times of optimum stability of the ambient magnetic field. This timeframe of operation meant returning to camp between 2 and 5 am and made field operations quite onerous as this was always the coldest time of day. Gravity measurements were time consuming and difficult because of vibrations within the sea ice cover. The magnetics and gravity survey was completed on November 10^th and the team returned to Scott Base by tractor train towed by Hagglunds,